I’m working on my book, but since it’s the first draft, am I doing too much work when I use the thesaurus so much, and taking lots of time on each sentence. I have always been intimidated with going back over a novel and fixing it to make it better after the first draft. So I guess I try to make it perfect the first time. Should I be working more on the story, and less on the words.
Hey Colleen! I totally get wanting each sentence to be perfect before moving on to the next. However, in the first draft, it’s super important not to edit while you write. That will always bring you out of the flow and slow down your writing drastically.
When writing your first draft, it doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be completed. Then, once it’s done, you get to return and fix everything you want to fix! I know it can be intimidating to fix everything at the end, but no matter how long you spend on each sentence, it’ll never be perfect and will still need editing anyway, so you might as well get the words on the page.
This is probably one of the hardest parts of writing for me, so don’t feel bogged down! Fighting off that inner critic as you write is a challenge. 🙂 You’re not alone in this!
Alli gave a great answer.
I think you can also assess how quickly you’re writing.
A good target pace for your writing is 1,000 words per hour. At that rate, you should be able to write pretty good prose, but you do need to keep moving.
It’s not so fast that you’re just writing gibberish. But you also can’t dawdle over every sentence.
Personally, I can write 1,000 words an hour while still using the thesaurus a little bit and putting pretty good sentences on the page.
If you’re not writing at that speed, then yes, you’re doing too much work. Scale back the quality a little bit and focus on getting the story on the page, like Alli said.
However, if you are achieving 1,000 words per hour, then keep doing what you’re doing. Make it the best you can at that speed.
Just don’t let yourself get bogged down. It is more important to complete the story in your first draft than it is to make it beautiful. That will come later!
